Rob Crilly is Pakistan correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. Before that he spent five years writing about Africa for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor from his base in Nairobi.

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Closer to home, his popularity nosedives. Few have forgotten the way in which he clung to power in 2007, introducing emergency powers and arresting judges for trying to limit his reach. He eventually stepped down a year later after his party was trounced in elections and impeachment loomed.

The military, who propelled him to power in 1999, don't want him back. They are still rebuilding their reputation and have shifted allegiance to Imran Khan's upstart campaign. (A senior member of Mr Musharraf's party here in Pakistan told me the triumphal homecoming had been delayed after the generals delivered a message that he was to stay away for now.)

Members of his All Pakistan Muslim League in Pakistan can see the challenges. They have urged him to delay. So for now the question is not when or if he will return, but why it is that he thinks he has any hope of contesting elections due within the next year.

But as one commentator put it to me: he is like any other good dictator – deluded to the point where he still believes his people love him.